Home Depot and Lowe's are the settings for U.S. skills transfer on a massive scale. Their  tutorials in basics - from how to caulk, cut a miter, or install wood moulding and which handtools to use - are a commentary in how far we've fallen as a people who use tools.

In our schools, unfortunately, budget pressures and government mandates have sliced away at support for woodworking and other shop and crafts classes, along with sports and the arts. Woodworking is a fundamental educational strategy - it teaches manual dexterity, develops hand-eye coordination, and uses safe, low-cost materials that get kids focussed, and teaches patience, perserverance and precision - skills that will even pay off in fields like accounting, programming and research.

Home Depot in-store displays, and their floor workers, are providing tutorials on-the-fly to homeovers and other consumers, notes Louis Uchitelle in a great essay, "The Nation That's Losing Its Toolbox," today in the New York Times.  (You might have to be a subscriber to read it.)

A hopeful note is being struck in educational initiatives within the woodworking industry, including efforts to support WoodLINKS USA projects at the International Woodworking Fair next month, and renewed support behind the Woodwork Career Alliance.

	KCD Sponsors WoodLINKS USA-RTA Contest Updated: 07/16/2012 8:22:00 PM The finalists are gearing up! WoodLINKS USA and the International Woodworking Fair have again joined together to present this national student competition involving the design and marketing of a ready-to assemble (RTA) wooden product. Read more
	WoodLINKS Auctions Laguna Bandsaw in eBay  Posted by Bill Esler | Updated: 07/16/2012 WoodLINKSUSA first offering on its eBay WoodLINKS USA Charity Auction: an LT14 3000 bandsaw from Laguna Tools. See a slide show, and link to bid on the saw. Read more